“Temptation Eyes” is featured on The Grass Roots‘ 1970 compilation album More Golden Grass. The tune spent 18 weeks on the charts, and lead singer Rob Grill dubbed the tune his favorite song the band ever released. The key fluctuates between A minor on the verses and A major on the choruses.
Tag: 1970s
Theme from “Barney Miller”
The Boston Phoenix reviewed the sitcom Barney Miller (1975-1982) as best-in-class TV. “Aside from The Honeymooners, Barney Miller was the sit-com that most approximated a one-act play. Almost every episode took place in one room of a rundown, filthy police station in Greenwich Village. Barney Miller managed to develop its main characters without showing their home lives (or their bare butts), thanks to perceptive writing and scenes that were long enough for actors to breathe.”
The theme is introduced by and built around the electric bass. NoTreble, one of the internet’s most comprehensive sites for all things bass-centric, profiles the session musician whose sound was featured: “As a member of the Wrecking Crew, Chuck Berghofer helped change the sound of popular music. His big, warm bass sound has laid the foundation for artists from A to Z with recordings by Frank Sinatra, Glen Campbell, Christina Aguilera, Frank Zappa, The Beach Boys, Diana Krall, Robbie Williams, and more. It has also set the mood on over 400 movies like Rocky, True Crime, Bird, and The Majestic.”
ArnoldFaberVibeman.com adds: “The team of Jack Elliott and Allyn Ferguson wrote this theme. Elliott was musical director for the Grammys for thirty consecutive years, Judy Garland‘s musical director, and creator of the Henry Mancini Institute as well as composer of many, many television and movie scores. Ferguson was among the founders of the Dick Grove School Of Music, musical director for Julie Andrews, Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme, and Johnny Mathis, as well as scoring for countless TV series and movies … When you heard that funky solo bass line, you knew what you were in for! (It) has all the elements of the show in that opening line and then, as soon as you get into the groove, all hell breaks loose with that trumpet. It’s hip, cornball AND nostalgic all at the same time.”
Clocking in at just over a minute, the theme features two modulations. At both 0:42 and 0:52, there are minor third shifts upwards.
The Jam | English Rose
“In May 1977, a three-piece rock group from Woking appeared on Top of the Pops. You can see what happened on YouTube: the presenter announcing an ‘effervescent new 45 called In The City, and the 140 seconds of wonderment that followed,” recalls The Jam’s website. “The song fizzed with the energy and sense of purpose that was firing what had been called punk and was now mutating into New Wave, but it had a lot more: a melodic charge – as in the glorious opening riff – that betrayed its makers’ love of classic British pop, and the clear sense that the band’s main creative force was already thinking like an accomplished songwriter. Between 1977 and 1982, the band released an incredible array of music. In the UK, there were five albums and 17 singles, a stack of number 1s, and a journey which encompassed no end of influences, styles, and textures.”
The punk/New Wave/mod revivalist band was best known for hard-edged, uptempo rave-ups like the debut album title track, but also for more reserved, carefully constructed New Wave songsmithing like 1981’s “That’s Entertainment” (listed by BBC 2 radio as the 43rd best song ever released by any artist) and the UK #1 hit “A Town Called Malice.” But its spare acoustic ballad, “English Rose” (1978) shows a different side of the band, with the extra weight of invoking England’s national flower and one of the nation’s most venerated symbols. The tune was written by band member Paul Weller, who later continued his success with the soul-inflected band The Style Council, founded just as The Jam lost steam in 1982.
The track modulates up a half-step at 1:39, propelled by many unexpected inversions along the way. Many thanks to MotD regular Rob Penttinen for identifying this mod in the wild!
The Sylvers | Hot Line
“There were so many Sylvers,” Stereogum reports. “There were 10 Sylvers siblings … If you watch the Sylvers on any of the big TV shows of the era — The Midnight Special, Soul Train, American Bandstand — they make for a breathtaking spectacle: All these kids, most of them with towering afros, all doing complicated and busy dance routines while belting out some almost absurdly catchy music, looking like the damn Polyphonic Spree.”
Other than their smash #1 hit “Boogie Fever” (1975), perhaps the group’s best known single is 1976’s “Hot Line,” which made it to only #5. Stereogum continues: “The Sylvers played some kind of crucial connective role within pop music, acting as a bridge between early-’70s Motown and the disco explosion that followed. The Sylvers’ success couldn’t last, and it didn’t … In different permutations, the Sylvers kept recording until 1985, when they finally broke up.”
With a super-saturated arrangement and a tempo that percolates in the high 130 BPM range, this tune was hardly in need of a boost. But a half-step modulation does indeed drop at 2:01, with all of the siblings’ voices united in a huge syncopated kick.
Gentle Giant | Free Hand
“Formed at the dawn of the progressive rock era, Gentle Giant seemed poised for a time in the mid-’70s to break out of their cult-band status,” AllMusic reports, “but they somehow never made the jump. Somewhat closer in spirit to Yes and King Crimson than to Emerson, Lake & Palmer or the Nice, their unique sound melded hard rock and classical music, with an almost medieval approach to singing.”
Going into detail on the tune “Free Hand,” released in 1975, AllMusic continues: “The title track stands out as one of Gentle Giant’s most completed efforts, with every aspect of their music coming into play … Derek Shulman’s jittery vocals offer up an erratic Jethro Tull-like resemblance throughout … Hectic and stirring yet well-controlled, “Free Hand” is one of the finest examples of Gentle Giant’s industrious progressive style, and the song serves as one of the band’s last wholehearted efforts before they lost their experimental edge.”
The track starts with an archetypical prog rock intro, falling into place with a deceptive gentleness. At 0:33, we land in F# minor; verse 1 sets us up with a strong 4/4 at 0:41. At 0:59, there’s a chaotic interlude in D# minor-ish, leading back to another verse 2 in F# minor at 1:11. At 1:28, a chaotic interlude leads into a new section at 1:37: the wheels start to fall off with a displaced verse 3, following the original melodic shape of the others but placed in what sounds like G mixolydian mode, in alternating bars of 4/4 and 3/4.
At 1:51, we have an all-bets-are-off instrumental interlude in 6/4, or 12/8 if you prefer. At 2:31, we’re briefly out of the rapids with another verse in F# minor. At 2:48, there’s a sign that reads ‘Beyond Here There Be Dragons,” with a vast multi-section, multi-meter, multi-key instrumental interlude. At 5:14, we’re back to the verse structure, again in F# minor. 6:09 brings us to a hilariously short, tongue-in-cheek mini-outro, given all of the sturm und drang which preceded it: a tiny version of the “chaotic interlude” originally heard at 0:59.
Our always-vigilant mod scout JB is responsible for this submission. We might thank him later for this one, but we need a stiff drink first.
Vicki Sue Robinson | Turn the Beat Around
One of the best-known disco classics of all time, “Turn The Beat Around” was written by Gerald and Peter Jackson and featured on Vicki Sue Robinson’s debut album Never Gonna Let You Go, released in 1976. The song, which held the number one spot on the disco chart for a month, was Robinson’s only hit, and won her a Grammy nomination for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance. Gloria Estefan recorded a very similar cover in 1994, and both versions have been used in numerous movies and TV shows.
The track modulates up a half step, from F# minor to G minor, at 2:48.
Stevie Wonder | Summer Soft
AfroPunk praises Stevie Wonder’s “Summer Soft” from his legendary 1976 album Songs In the Key of Life: ‘“You’ve been fooled by April, and he’s gone. Winter is gone,’ sings Stevie Wonder atop spiraling instruments. If you could create a song that encompasses the calm excitement of watching nature at the park — or on Netflix — that song would be Stevie Wonder’s ‘Summer Soft.’ It’s a cathartic epic about life and loss, using the changing seasons as a metaphorical backdrop, with Wonder’s voice sounding more pained with every passing verse, but … the production blooms.”
The track was one of so many singularly strong tunes on this celebrated album. From Pitchfork‘s review: “Songs in the Key of Life was the culmination of a historic period of creativity for Stevie Wonder. Its ambition and scope were unprecedented, and he never approached its caliber or impact again. Stevie Wonder’s legacy ranks among the most powerful in pop music, though his story remains elusive. His songwriting and his voice echo through virtually all R&B-related sounds that have followed him … yet there is no major biography, no documentary, nothing that presents the full sweep of the most dominant and defining artist of the 1970s. And make no mistake—it was an era of superstar acts and chart-busting albums, but no one was as universally loved, respected, and honored as he was.”
After the tune starts in F# major, the first chorus (1:02) shifts to B minor, but then drifts back to the initial key for the next verse. At 2:17, a half-step modulation hits not at the start of a new section, but rather on the last note of the pre-chorus, transitioning to B minor — a pattern that’s repeated. Thereafter, the lid blows off as the tune winds up more and more, though it’s difficult to pinpoint a specific apogee of the energy. At 3:32, the tonality of the final chorus stabilizes, leading us to an instrumental outro; there’s a fade in volume (in high 1970s fashion), but no lag in energy.
Los Saviñón | Ciudad Hermosa
With music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz, a composer known for his works Pippin, Working, and Wicked (among many others), “Beautiful City” was featured in Schwartz’s Godspell (1971). From the synopsis of the production on Schwartz’s site: “Based on the New Testament gospels, mostly St. Matthew, Godspell uses the parables and passion story of Jesus for an inventively theatrical and interactive show about the formation of a community.” To call the show a national phenomenon isn’t an overstatement. In an interview with Broadway World, Schwartz recalled: “I think there were … 10 productions running at the same time and they were like sit down in various cities. So, I spent about a year of my life traveling around the country working on productions of Godspell.”
JewSchool.com describes Schwartz’s apparent focus on “biblical- and religious-themed” work: “In addition to Godspell, he’s the songwriter behind Prince of Egypt (the animated musical retelling of the Exodus story) and Children of Eden (a musical rethinking of the first nine chapters of Genesis). He wrote the lyrics to Bernstein’s Mass … ” However, “the song is surprisingly humanistic. The rallying cry is to build ‘not a city of angels, but finally a city of man.’”
Mexican a cappella sextet Los Saviñón‘s web presence is long on music and short on descriptions, but here’s an excerpt from its bio, translated from Spanish: “We are an a cappella vocal group formed at the end of 2013. (We explore) popular music from different times and places, focusing mainly on a repertoire in Spanish. We have performed in important venues in Mexico City and in the interior of the republic.”
The group’s rendition of “Beautiful City,” arranged by David Pineda, includes the familiar key changes of some other renditions — but adds a few more for good measure. This effect is most noticeable towards the end of verse 1, which wraps up at 0:35. Recorded “en casa” (in the performers’ respective homes) at the start of the COVID pandemic (April 2020), the video demonstrates the resourcefulness and cohesion-at-a-distance which were required of so many musical ensembles during the worst of the pandemic.
Tower of Power | Get Yo’ Feet Back On the Ground
“A renowned horn-driven outfit, Tower of Power emerged in the late ’60s playing a dynamic blend of R&B, soul, funk, and AM pop,” according to AllMusic’s collective bio. “Along with the similarly inclined Chicago and Blood, Sweat & Tears, Tower of Power helped push the sound of brass-infused music into the rock era. Led by Detroit-born tenor saxophonist Emilio Castillo, the Oakland, California-based group scored hits like ‘You’re Still a Young Man’ and ‘What Is Hip?’ throughout the ’70s. They also became one of the most sought-after backing ensembles in pop, playing on recordings by Elton John, Santana, Bonnie Raitt, Aerosmith, Josh Groban, Huey Lewis, Little Feat, David Sanborn, Michelle Shocked, Paula Abdul, Aaron Neville, Aerosmith, Public Image Ltd., and many others.”
The band’s origins date back to 1967, Oakland, CA, and a different name, “The Motowns.” In an interview with American Highways, Castillo discussed his relationship to the funk sound that is the foundation of ToP: “Ever since I was a teenager, I have always liked to mess with the rhythm of the music. I used to make up these weird percolator kind of beats and dictate them to my brother, who was the drummer at the time, and make him learn them.” The same process applied to the bassist, guitarist, and keyboardist: “So it’s kind of like when it comes to music, I try to build a little building and make a fabric that breathes.”
From ToP’s self-titled third album (1973) comes “Get Yo’ Feet Back On the Ground.” This multi-tiered funk romp was not a single (unlike “What is Hip” and “So Very Hard to Go” from the same album), yet qualifies as far more than filler. A very late modulation shifts the key up a half-step at 4:26.
The Nolans | I’m in the Mood for Dancing
“I’m in the Mood for Dancing” was released as a single by the Irish pop group The Nolan Sisters (later known as The Nolans) in 1979, and featured on their debut album that year. The track reached the #3 spot on the UK Singles in 1980, and is the most successful song the group ever recorded (it was so successful in Japan that they recorded the tune again in Japanese.) The tune modulates at 1:38, and returns to the original key at 2:15.
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